Thursday Night Live!

Celebrating NAIDOC Week 8-15 November, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and acknowledging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and achievements. Facilitator Naomi Moran (Koori Mail) is joined Elders Uncle Rob Bryant, Uncle Des Williams, Uncle Herb Roberts, Aunty Robyne Bancroft, Aunty Gwen Hickling. Elders are members of the Southern Cross University Gnibi Elders Council. Hear from our Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr Elders as they share their stories of connection to Country, culture, and community addressing the theme for Naidoc 2020 – Always Was, Always Will Be. Presented by Southern Cross University, Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples in partnership with Lismore Regional Gallery.

In recognition of National Week of Deaf People celebrating their community language culture and history this month's Thursday Night Live! was an all Deaf panel discussing Auslan, language recognition and the impact on the Northern Rivers Deaf community. *The panel was communicated in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and interpreted in spoken English and can be viewed as a video on at www.facebook.com/thursdaynightlivelismore

This Thursday Night Live! coincided with History Week. The theme for 2020 is ‘History: What is it good for?’, which invites participants to share with their communities why history matters to them. In Australia history has been unsettled and the subject of ongoing debate. Just as the brutality of colonisation and legitimacy of Aboriginal sovereignty has been increasingly recognised, the relevance and quality of historical practice has come under fire. History can shape our identities and engage us citizens, it can also exclude and deny. We can celebrate and mourn the very same stories and tell them in so many different mediums. In the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing in Australia it is time to ask, whose history? Who controls the narrative? Are the statues and monuments to colonial Australia ‘history’ or a distortion of the past? How can we retell that story or listen to the First Nations perspectives of it being shared? Joining the panel is Dr Mariko Smith, a Yuin woman who is First Nations Assistant Curator at the Australian Museum working on the 2020 Project, as a First Nations-led response to the 250 anniversary. Their consultation process revealed that the most significant aspect of the anniversary was truth-telling about Australia’s history, the true story of Cook and the foundation of Australia. Gamilaroi/Darug artist, producer, podcaster and writer, Travis De Vries’s work confronts constructions of Australian history. Cook Falling, Tear it Down (2019) depicts a group of Aboriginal people pulling down the iconic statue, and false idol, of Captain Cook in Hyde Park. Travis de Vries’s work brings Indigenous storytelling together with western mythologies to create something new. Cook Falling, Tear it Down precedes the recent debate about toppling statues, but the themes resonate still; ‘One of retelling and reclaiming control and who owns that control, reclaiming an identity that is a big part of that story.’ Mariko and Travis will be in conversation with Brett Adlington, Director Lismore Regional Gallery and Adele Wessell, historian at Southern Cross University. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery

Join us for Thursday Night Live! INTO THE DEEP BLUE to hear a diverse panel talking about humans and our interactions with the ocean. The theme of National Science Week 2020 is Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans. The theme embraces the innovative technologies, capabilities and skills needed to achieve economic, environmental and social sustainability of our oceans. It features insights and inquiries into workable solutions that generate healthy oceans, healthy economies and healthy communities. For this special Thursday Night Live! we dive deep into the blue. Facilitator Dr Kristin den Exter will be joined by award-winning contemporary artist Tamara Dean, drone scientist Professor Brendan Kelaher, and Great Barrier Reef marine scientist Kay Davis, from subtropical Southern Cross University. Lets talk art, photography and humans in the environment, the role of technology such as drones to monitor shark behaviour and how scientists at Southern Cross University are playing a part in understanding the effects of climate change on our oceans. Following the panel conversation will be a Q&A session which will be opened to the audience. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery. This National Science Week event is proudly supported by the Northern Rivers Science Hub and Inspiring Australia.

Thursday Night Live! ‘Always Was – Always Will Be?’ Join facilitator Dhinawan Baker in conversation with Janine Dunleavy - Director of Teaching and Learning, and Lecturers Rachel Lynwood, and Rod Williams. After the Sorry Day destruction by Rio Tinto of the Juukan Gorge ancient sacred site in Western Australia, and the strong response to the Black Lives Matter movement across Australia and the world, join us in what would normally be NAIDOC week, to hear from the Academics of Southern Cross University's Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, discussing ‘Always Was – Always Will Be?’

Hear from a diverse panel of young people from regional NSW talking about their experiences of the impact of COVID 19 and their visions for the future. The experiences of the COVID 19 pandemic are very different for young people at a crucial period of their life and the repercussions will be felt for generations to come. Young people are more likely to be in precarious working arrangements and lack social and financial protection or independent decision-making power. They make up 40 percent of the casual workforce in Australia, most in industries that have seen the biggest job losses so far: accommodation, food services, arts and recreation. Disruptions to education, home, aspirations and social life have been deeply felt and many may be at the risk of being left behind, vulnerable and marginalised youth in particular. At the same time, responses to the crisis and young people’s experiences may have positive implications as we will come to rely on their ideas and labour and knowledge in the future. Should this, will this, look the same? More than ever we need young people’s voices to think about new futures. Facilitator Richard Atkin will be joined by Nimbin HSC student Arky Ryall, Evans Head local Digby Mercer who is currently in his gap year and Holly Ahern, an Honours student at Southern Cross University, Lismore. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery.

2020 is the year we find ourselves collectively questioning everything. It is also the United Nations ‘International Year of Plant Health. For the first online Thursday Night Live! in the time of COVID-19 we ask our experts: ‘Can Plants Save us?’ Facilitator Dr Kristin den Exter, is joined by Southern Cross University Professor of Plant Science Graham King; Dr Kate Neale researcher from the Centre for Children and Young People with an interest in therapeutic horticulture; Mark Dunphy author and rainforest regenerator; and artist Andrew Rewald whose practice is informed by an interest in food anthropology and his background as a trained chef. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery.

Thursday Night Live! :: Laughing in the Face of Adversity Four amazing women who use laughter in their work and life, and are not afraid to tackle the sometimes difficult and uncomfortable experiences of life through humour. The panel talks 'Laughing in the Face of Adversity' pondering the question: Is laughter sometimes the best medicine? Panel facilitated by Gabrielle Griffin with panellists: Mandy Nolan, Maire Barron and Simone O'Brien. CONTENT WARNING! Adult themes, sexual references and colourful language. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery.

World Mental Health Day, 10 October, is an opportunity to raise awareness of mental health issues and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health and suicide prevention. Every year globally, close to 800 000 people take their own life and there are many more people who attempt suicide. Every suicide is a tragedy that affects families, communities and entire countries and has long-lasting effects on the people left behind. People of all ages, races, genders, incomes and family backgrounds commit suicide. But young people are especially at risk.Suicide is the leading cause of death among young Australians. About 350 young people aged 15–24 take their own lives every year – more than die on the roads. For every youth suicide, there are 100 to 200 more attempts. Join our expert panel for Thursday Night Live! - 'Opening Hearts and Minds - how do we talk about suicide?' Facilitator Rose Hogan from Standby NSW Suicide Support , is joined by Luke Rugendyke, Vice President headspace Lismore Youth Advisory Group, Nerida Barclay Clinical Social Worker headspace Lismore, Ben Karsay from Beyond Empathy and Colin Marsh from Rekindling The Spirit.

We produce enough food to feed the world, but people are still hungry, the hungriest people are directly involved in food production, and the richest people spend the smallest percentage of their income on food. Taking into account the plight of farmers in drought, the rising rates of food insecurity, the large volume of food waste, the health care and environmental costs of cheap food and inequities in the labour system in low wages from farm to plate, the food system may appear broken. On the other hand the food system is working for some, industrialised food has delivered the cheapest food possible, bad food may be good for business, but at what cost? The news isn’t all bad and the movement for change is growing. A food systems approach brings together the complex web of activities that bring our food from dirt to dinner. The recognised links between the environment, health, food security, poverty and social justice reflect a growing understanding of the structural forces that negatively impact people and the earth. Join our panel of food practitioners and experts to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities to create a more just food system. Facilitator Associate Professor Adele Wessell – Lecturer School of Arts and Social Sciences Southern Cross University - will be joined by Lorraine Gordon – founder of the National Regenerative Agriculture Alliance and Director of Strategic Projects Southern Cross University; Joel Orchard– Founder of Future Feeders, and Co-founder of Young Farmers Connect; and Hogan Gleeson – Farmer, Innovator and Co-founder of Urban Ecological Systems. Presented by the Lismore Regional Gallery and Southern Cross University, Thursday Night Live! is a new ongoing talks program which puts thought-provoking and big ideas in the spotlight.

A special episode commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the 1979 Terania Creek Forest Blockade, a turning point in the campaign to preserve the globally unique subtropical rainforests of eastern Australia. The Terania Creek rainforest inspired a history-making environmental campaign. And that campaign has inspired environmental and community actions throughout Australia and internationally. Hear about this important history and the ripples that continue to wash on the shores of activism from four inspiring women: * Nan Nicholson, botanist and environmental activist; * Rhonda Ellis, Terania Creek protest veteran; * Maddy Braddon, climate justice activist and Southern Cross University Environmental Science graduate; and * Dr. Vanessa Bible, academic and environmentalist, University of New England; * in a discussion followed by Q&A facilitated by Associate Professor Adele Wessell, environmental and food historian, Southern Cross University. Recorded at the School of Arts and Social Sciences 2019 Annual Public Seminar.

The trajectory seems set for further species loss and major disruption to life as we know it, but is there anything we can do to stop the decline in both species diversity, and the dire predictions of warming due to Anthropogenic climate change? Recent research published in the highly respected journal ‘Science’ highlights tree planting as the number one action people can take to mitigate climate change and the Extinction Rebellion has risen. Will that be enough and what action can we take? Come and join us for this important conversation. Joining Facilitator Dr Hanabeth Luke – Lecturer School of Environment Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University for this important conversation on the panel we welcome Professor Peter Harrison – Director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre, Southern Cross University; Sue Higginson – Public Interest Environmental Law Expert and former CEO of Environmental Defenders Organisation (NSW); with Ruth Rosenhek – Deep Ecologist and Facilitator of Extinction Rebellion Lismore. Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue. Thursday Night Live! is a partnership event of Southern Cross University and the Lismore Regional Gallery. Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/thursdaynightlivelismore

Thursday Night Live! putting 'Voice Treaty Truth' front and centre for Naidoc Week in Lismore discussing – 'What kind of history for a shared future?' Facilitated by Naomi Moran (Koori Mail), who will be joined by panelists Rod Little (Co-Chair, National Congress of Australia's First Peoples), Professor Norm Sheehan, (Dean) and Lyndon Murphy (Lecturer) - Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples. Presented by the Lismore Regional Gallery and Southern Cross University, Thursday Night Live! is a monthly talks program putting critical, thought-provoking topics in the spotlight. This month in collaboration with Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples. * Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/thursdaynightlivelismore

Thursday Night Live! June 13th - Refugees now and then - has Australia lost its compassion? Australia has a long history in resettling refugees, viewed as a world leader in the years after World War II and yet, policies and attitudes towards people who come here to seek asylum have hardened over the last two decades. Principled solutions to the complex and difficult problems faced by refugees in the world would seem to be lacking in contemporary Australian politics. If this is a reflection on the character of the nation, is it now fair to ask, have we lost our compassion? How quickly have some of us forgotten our past? Join Facilitator Dr Leticia Anderson, Lecturer in Humanities at Southern Cross University, in conversation with this months panel: Nathan Willis - PhD student and Solicitor, and Migration Consultant; Katka Adams - Visual artist and political refugee; and Angus McDonald - Visual artist and filmmaker advocating for more humanitarian approaches to managing the welfare of forcibly displaced people seeking asylum. 5.30pm there will be a film screening by Angus McDonald and Slate Cafe opens. The panel discussion begins at 6pm. Presented by the Lismore Regional Gallery and Southern Cross University, Thursday Night Live! is a monthly talks program putting critical, thought-provoking topics in the spotlight. * Join the conversation on twitter #thursdaynightlive and facebook www.facebook.com/thursdaynightlivelismore * Listen to the Thursday Night Live! podcast: soundcloud.com/thursdaynightlive/

Australia is perhaps the least densely populated major country in the world yet a number of urban and coastal regional areas are experiencing a housing crisis where many people are now living without homes. The Northern Rivers faces significant challenges in terms of housing affordability and homelessness. Recent figures suggest that Tweed Heads was the 8th least affordable housing city in the world, that Byron Shire had the least affordable private rents of anywhere in NSW, with Ballina, Clarence Valley and Tweed Shire also in the top nine least affordable areas in the state (North Coast Community Housing Annual Report 2017-2018). What can we do to address this? Join facilitator Adele Wessell (Southern Cross University) in conversation with the expert panel: Tony Davies (CEO Social Futures); John McKenna (CEO North Coast Community Housing) and researcher Dr Sandy Darab (Southern Cross University) discussing "Living without homes - how can we fix the regions housing crisis?" Presented by the Lismore Regional Gallery and Southern Cross University, Thursday Night Live! is a monthly talks program putting critical, thought-provoking topics in the spotlight. Held on the second Thursday of each month. Cafe opens at 5.30pm and the panel discussion begins at 6pm.

The Thursday Night Live! panel this month brings the perspective of this regions young people to ask "Striking for change - can youth activism shape the future?" Facilitated by Maddy Braddon, an energetic young Alumnus of Southern Cross University, who is dedicated to climate justice and building community connectedness. Maddy’s approach to change making stems from a growing understanding that we all share common experiences and skills that unite us in the face of adversity. Maddy is part of a dynamic network of people that established Lismore Helping Hands, a grassroots community-led recovery effort after the devastating 2017 floods there. Maddy works with the Lock The Gate Alliance, and as a research assistant with the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore, on a project that explores the mental health and wellbeing impacts of those floods. Maddy will be joined by a powerful group of young panellists who were the organising force behind the Lismore Climate Strike: • Elsa Bertram, 10, from Albert Park Public School was born loving animals. She decided independently from an early age that animals had too many feelings to eat and has worked to save the wood ducks outside her house from getting run over -- and it worked. From that moment she hasn't been able to stop being an activist. • Grace O'Shannessy is 17 years old and is in year 12 at Alstonville High School. She has always been involved in environmental action and was inspired to go to the school strike because of this. • Frewoini Baume is in Year 12 from Trinity Catholic College in Lismore. Presented by the Lismore Regional Gallery and Southern Cross University, Thursday Night Live! is a monthly talks program putting critical, thought-provoking topics in the spotlight. Held on the second Thursday of each month. Cafe opens at 5.30pm and the panel discussion begins at 6pm. * Follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/thursdaynightlivelismore * Miss the last TNL? Listen to the Thursday Night Live! podcast: soundcloud.com/thursdaynightlive/

Rethinking Democracy - Do We Need the State? The looming NSW state election brings a timely question:: What function does the state performs and for who? 14th March 2019 Lismore Regional Gallery Who knew politics could be so stimulating! No we are not talking about pre-poll or even poll-bots but last nights "Thursday Night Live - Rethinking Democracy - Do we need the state?". Facilitator Associate Professor Adele Wessell with panelists Law Lecturer Aiden Ricketts, Politics Lecturer Dr Yvonne Hartman, educator, singer/songwriter and loyal defender of social and environmental justice Marcelle Townsend-Cross and former Mayor of Lismore Jenny Dowell OAM covered a lot of ground from abolishing the states altogether to deliberative democracy. A partnership event of Southern Cross University​ and the Lismore Regional Gallery​,Thursday Night Live! is an evening of provocation, discussion and dialogue held on the second Thursday of each month #thursdaynightlive #liveideas #politics #conversation https://soundcloud.com/thursdaynightlive/rethinking-democracy-do-we-need-the-states

Love may be a sweet old-fashioned notion to some, but for many its meaning has changed over time and within relationships. This Valentine’s Day, Southern Cross University in partnership with the Lismore Regional Gallery will launch the 2019 season of the Thursday Night Live! series with the aptly-themed provocation ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ The Thursday Night Live! panel will discuss how Valentine’s Day can be a celebration of love, but also how love can be appropriated in the interests of retail, and how unions and relationships are managed by the state. Some might say that cynicism about the day is as typical as the increased sales in roses – a day of broken hearts or broken wallets. When it comes to sex, however, love is a different matter altogether. The Thursday Night Live! panel will be hosted by Southern Cross University Indigenous studies alumnus Edda Lampis who will navigate the conversation around love and sex, and debunking assumptions of monogamy, gender identity and sexuality, followed by audience discussion. Joining Edda to discuss the provocation will be four panellists: Nollie Nahrung is a Southern Cross University PhD candidate in the School of Arts and Social Sciences. Her research explores non-monogamous relationship practices using an interdisciplinary approach. Nollie is interested in how interpersonal relationships can mirror and/or challenge broader societal structures. Her research employs cultural studies perspectives in tandem with experimental writing and digital collage techniques. Nollie’s research engages with writings about gender and sexuality from the spheres of feminism, anarchism and queer theory. Her Honours thesis was an autoethnography that examined polyamory as queer heterosexuality. Rose Hogan is a community service provider and educator in the Northern Rivers and a staunch advocate for collaborative practice, acknowledging it takes many to support a healthy, vibrant and diverse community. She currently manages StandBy NSW, a postvention response to the health and wellbeing of people bereaved through suicide, a privileged position of trust, while holding space for people at times of change, challenge and uncertainty. As a joyous balance to this work, Rose is also an Authorised Marriage Celebrant where love and commitment is formally celebrated. She appreciates the significance of honouring the days and nights of our lives and the many special and ordinary bits in between. Beth Cronin has been a social worker for more than 20 years and has been intrigued by human relationships for as long as she can remember. Whether she’s living, loving, working or playing, her mantra is “it’s all about relationships”. Beth is a wife, a mother, counsellor, supervisor, group facilitator and writer. She is a white, CIS-gendered, queer woman with an intense interest in how our relationship with ourselves and each other interface with the social constructs around us. Beth has been called a love warrior on more than one occasion and believes loneliness is one of the most significant health crises our society faces. Brett Paradise is the Regional Manager for headspace youth mental health services and is Clinical Manager at Choices Reproductive and Sexual Health. He has more than two decades of experience managing social and community programs and services, including three years as executive Director at specialist LGBTIQA+ community organisation, the Twenty10 Association incorporating the Gay and Lesbian Counselling service of NSW. He has a long history of volunteering his time with Tropical Fruits Inc for which he is currently the Chairperson. Brett married Dean, his partner of 12 years, last November.